Boulder City Council changes rules for public comment

By Jean Reid Norman

Friday, Sept. 11, 2009 | 2:05 a.m.

People attending future Boulder City Council meetings will get some ground rules when the enter the council chamber.

The City Council voted unanimously on Tuesday to begin publishing guidelines for speakers on the back of the agendas distributed at the meetings.

The council also voted to allow announcements of community events near the start of the meeting and to resume reports by City Council members at the end of the meeting, with a five-minute limit. The members discussed but did not vote on changing the seating arrangement on the dais.

While they were at it, council members took the opportunity to tweak the rules for speakers.

The guidelines, titled “Welcome to the Boulder City Council meeting,” list eight rules that instruct speakers to wait to be recognized by the mayor, address the council as a whole, provide their name for the record, limit their comments to five minutes, speak only about the agenda item being considered, refrain from personal attacks, address question to the council through the mayor and provide eight copies of any exhibits before the meeting.

The new guidelines ask speakers “to make every effort” to provide eight copies of exhibits before the meeting — for the five council members, city clerk, city manager and city attorney.

Councilman Cam Walker said there might be instances in which speakers would not have the opportunity to make copies, but they should not be prohibited from speaking or offering an exhibit.

The new rules will also note that questions cannot be shouted from the floor, rather than prohibiting speakers from asking questions directly of council and staff members. Councilwoman Linda Strickland said she wanted people to be able to ask questions.

And the guidelines will request that speakers refrain from personal attacks on the mayor, council members, staff or other people. Councilman Travis Chandler said that what one person considers valid criticism may be taken by another as a personal attack and he didn’t want anyone’s First Amendment rights to be violated.

The addition of a public comment section at the start of the meeting for community announcements was unanimously approved by council members who said they felt sorry for people who sat through the entire meeting so they could get publicity on local cable outlet BCTV for their events. Speakers will be asked to sign up in advance for the announcement portion of the meeting.

The council voted 4-1 to put the City Council Reports back on the regular agendas. The item, which had been used by council members primarily to recount the community events they attended, were discontinued last year after some council members used the time to address more controversial issues. City Attorney Dave Olsen had expressed concern that the reports might violate the state’s Open Meeting Law, because the topics were not specified on the agenda.

Strickland said the council should have an opportunity to reply to comments residents make during the Public Comment portion of the meeting. Council members currently have been given an opportunity to speak after the public during that time. After some discussion, Strickland withdrew a motion to allow council comments after each member of the public spoke.

Walker asked that the council reports be added to the agenda and the council members limited to five minutes, the time limit for public comments. The motion was approved 4-1, with Strickland opposing it.

Walker also asked if the council could consider reorganizing the seating on the dais to put Mayor Roger Tobler in the center with council members to either side by seniority and the city clerk, city manager and city attorney on the ends. Currently, the staff members have one side of the dais, the mayor sits next to the city clerk and the council members sit on the other side of the mayor.

At the end of the half-hour discussion, the council members decided the seating arrangement did not require a vote and agreed to discuss their preferences individually with City Manager Vicki Mayes.